In the very newest snapshot, I noticed that the new redstone blocks can't be used to power the beacon.
Now, I know that you receive much more redstone per block compared to the other materials, and that lapis lazuli can't power the beacon either (possibly for the aforementioned reason). But iron can be used to power the beacon, and it's a much more common material than either redstone or lapis. Additionally, the material you use to build the pyramid and fuel the block has no effect on the beacon's output.
I believe there are several potential solutions
1) Make it so that more common materials (iron, redstone, lapis, and possibly Nether quartz in the future) provide a different effect from more expensive materials (diamond, emerald). When building the pyramid, this could equate to a larger/smaller area of effect, and when fueling the block, this could equate to a longer/shorter buff time. Those are just examples, though.
2) Simply allow redstone, and possibly lapis lazuli, to power the beacon.
No it is not, when you mine iron you get 1, when you mine redstone or lapis, with fortune 3, you get 7. There is just no way this will happen and I really hope it doesn't, 'cause frankly is not a good idea xD
Nah, I think it makes sense for redstone blocks to not power the beacon.
Even though you may be able to get a lot of iron, iron has many other uses and many crafting recipes. Many players would consider using redstone to be a cheaper alternative for the beacon because your average survival player doesn't really use much redstone at all.
Even if you consider redstone harder to get than iron (which it may be, but not by much) it isn't difficult to get a lot of it. It cheapens it too much.
It would be good if pyramids made from more valuable materials made the beacon better somehow, to encourage beacons made from expensive materials. But I still don't think redstone should be used for beacons.
It would be good if pyramids made from more valuable materials made the beacon better somehow, to encourage beacons made from expensive materials. But I still don't think redstone should be used for beacons.
Yeah, this is kind of what I was thinking.
There's no particular reason why you wouldn't build the pyramid out of iron, except for aesthetics...
There's no particular reason why you wouldn't build the pyramid out of iron, except for aesthetics...
Actually, once you get a farmer villager and he wants to buy something, it becomes easy to get emeralds, so it isn't too hard.
More on topic, though, I actually find a lot more redstone ores than iron ores (although that's probably just because of the level I mine at), and on top of that, one redstone ore drops multiple redstone dust. Finally, redstone isn't exactly a mineral in the sense the pyramid blocks are. Though, redstone blocks are something that's meant to provide power... maybe redstone could be allowed if it requires additional layers or something like that.
Redstone blocks shouldn't be able to be used in the beacon, because redstone is extremely common and the beacon would be too easy to get. The beacon itself needs a buff to make it worth the crazy cost.
Also, making the effects greater by material used would be borderline silly once you move past iron. What effect would possibly be worth nearly 1500 diamonds? It had better turn you into a god.
Redstone blocks shouldn't be able to be used in the beacon, because redstone is extremely common and the beacon would be too easy to get. The beacon itself needs a buff to make it worth the crazy cost.
Also, making the effects greater by material used would be borderline silly once you move past iron. What effect would possibly be worth nearly 1500 diamonds? It had better turn you into a god.
Why not?
Maybe in Multiplayer, that would be a bad idea. But in Singleplayer, why not?
If you took the time to mine up to 23.0675 stacks of diamonds, you probably deserve some good reward out of it.
But in all seriousness, I really think that there should be a tiered bonus to the minerals used. Like maybe more effects that can be casted per beacon (e.g. redstone can be one, iron can be two, emerald can be 3 etc) and more potent effects. (lvl 1 speed, lvl 2 speed etc). And the range as well.
But more specifically: Redstone should be able to power the beacon WITHOUT WEAKENING IT.
Why? Because the Beacon is the single weakest item/block/anything in the game for it's insane cost. Being able to use redstone blocks to generate it's current effect would make it somewhat worth it (and I really do mean only "somewhat"; it's got exploration/travel-centric effects within an area that's so small you cant actually explore anything or go anywhere with them). And heck, even then, it's still more trouble than it's worth; that's still *alot* of redstone (so will be a good amount of deep mining), and still the incredibly irritating bit of having to go through the extreme tedium of getting the Star.
I'd love to see redstone blocks and/or lapis blocks be useable for that thing. It's totally worthless as it is currently.
I think it should but to augment the beacon like it does with potions, each layer you add to the beacon it would give more range more time or some such thing. Adding glow stone to the beacon could maybe make it brighter. Other ores could do other things to the buffs given by the beacon.
Yes, beacons aren't worth it. So, the production cost should be nerfed a bit. Then people who don't use redstone much could use stacks full of redstone for something useful. If it has to, it could cost an extra layer to start getting effects.
I think it would be okay, but it should function at a very low tier. Redstone is VERY easy to get, I can normally get a stack or two within 10-20 minutes of mining. I can fill a chest with redstone quicker than I can fill one with iron, most definitely.
I don' t understand why redstone and lapis lazuli shouldn't be able to be used in a beacon pyramid. Why? Because You can farm Iron. Take the time to build an Iron Golem Farm then you have an infinite and renewable source of iron. Redstone and Lapis are not renewable. That is my reasoning for having redstone and lapis used in the pyramid.
How many pieces of redstone dust do you get from one redstone ore?
Now how many iron ingots do you get from one iron ore?
You also can't use fortune on iron.
That, though, doesnt matter much. There's other things to consider.
1. Redstone is only found deep; Iron is *everywhere*. Doesnt matter whatsoever how deep.
2. Iron is faster to get to. I can enter any cave, any cave at all, and chances are, BAM, iron is there, usually many different clumps of it. But Redstone requires that you go deeper. If caving, this often means traversing lava, among other things, and darkness, depending on your depth, and it simply takes longer to go that low. Iron requires no depth at all, and when mining it higher up, you're very unlikely to encounter lava, and can easily get back out if you need to. Not to mention, the distance between each iron cluster is less, regardless. If you're strip-mining everything is slower (and again, you MUST be deep to get redstone, so higher lava chance), and you're still going to encounter iron more.
3. Yeah, you can use fortune picks to mine redstone, but similarly, the proper sort of pick can make mining iron incredibly quick. Efficiency 4 diamond picks tend to do that.
There's not enough of a difficulty change between using iron blocks and using redstone blocks to warrant NOT having redstone be usable here, or to warrant having it be weaker. Iron IS still a bit more valuable, but that's part of the problem: Even if the two took equal time to get, I'd rather spend 1500 redstone than 1500 iron, considering the Beacon's weak, shortranged effects.... and even then, it's still probably not worth it (or even CLOSE to worth it).
Unfortunately, the Beacon is simply too pathetic in it's current form to be worth it, regardless of the material. The thing needs major changes not to what it takes to make it, but to what it DOES, and the range it does it at. Sadly, it seems unlikely to ever get these changes, except via mods.
Now, I know that you receive much more redstone per block compared to the other materials, and that lapis lazuli can't power the beacon either (possibly for the aforementioned reason). But iron can be used to power the beacon, and it's a much more common material than either redstone or lapis. Additionally, the material you use to build the pyramid and fuel the block has no effect on the beacon's output.
I believe there are several potential solutions
1) Make it so that more common materials (iron, redstone, lapis, and possibly Nether quartz in the future) provide a different effect from more expensive materials (diamond, emerald). When building the pyramid, this could equate to a larger/smaller area of effect, and when fueling the block, this could equate to a longer/shorter buff time. Those are just examples, though.
2) Simply allow redstone, and possibly lapis lazuli, to power the beacon.
3) Disallow iron from powering the beacon.
Also, this is a nice idea. Redstone isn't as common and I'd like a use for the blocks.
Even though you may be able to get a lot of iron, iron has many other uses and many crafting recipes. Many players would consider using redstone to be a cheaper alternative for the beacon because your average survival player doesn't really use much redstone at all.
Even if you consider redstone harder to get than iron (which it may be, but not by much) it isn't difficult to get a lot of it. It cheapens it too much.
It would be good if pyramids made from more valuable materials made the beacon better somehow, to encourage beacons made from expensive materials. But I still don't think redstone should be used for beacons.
Yeah, this is kind of what I was thinking.
There's no particular reason why you wouldn't build the pyramid out of iron, except for aesthetics...
Actually, once you get a farmer villager and he wants to buy something, it becomes easy to get emeralds, so it isn't too hard.
More on topic, though, I actually find a lot more redstone ores than iron ores (although that's probably just because of the level I mine at), and on top of that, one redstone ore drops multiple redstone dust. Finally, redstone isn't exactly a mineral in the sense the pyramid blocks are. Though, redstone blocks are something that's meant to provide power... maybe redstone could be allowed if it requires additional layers or something like that.
Carrots
Also, making the effects greater by material used would be borderline silly once you move past iron. What effect would possibly be worth nearly 1500 diamonds? It had better turn you into a god.
Why not?
Maybe in Multiplayer, that would be a bad idea. But in Singleplayer, why not?
If you took the time to mine up to 23.0675 stacks of diamonds, you probably deserve some good reward out of it.
But in all seriousness, I really think that there should be a tiered bonus to the minerals used. Like maybe more effects that can be casted per beacon (e.g. redstone can be one, iron can be two, emerald can be 3 etc) and more potent effects. (lvl 1 speed, lvl 2 speed etc). And the range as well.
But more specifically: Redstone should be able to power the beacon WITHOUT WEAKENING IT.
Why? Because the Beacon is the single weakest item/block/anything in the game for it's insane cost. Being able to use redstone blocks to generate it's current effect would make it somewhat worth it (and I really do mean only "somewhat"; it's got exploration/travel-centric effects within an area that's so small you cant actually explore anything or go anywhere with them). And heck, even then, it's still more trouble than it's worth; that's still *alot* of redstone (so will be a good amount of deep mining), and still the incredibly irritating bit of having to go through the extreme tedium of getting the Star.
I'd love to see redstone blocks and/or lapis blocks be useable for that thing. It's totally worthless as it is currently.
How many pieces of redstone dust do you get from one redstone ore?
Now how many iron ingots do you get from one iron ore?
You also can't use fortune on iron.
Follow @_creepz
That, though, doesnt matter much. There's other things to consider.
1. Redstone is only found deep; Iron is *everywhere*. Doesnt matter whatsoever how deep.
2. Iron is faster to get to. I can enter any cave, any cave at all, and chances are, BAM, iron is there, usually many different clumps of it. But Redstone requires that you go deeper. If caving, this often means traversing lava, among other things, and darkness, depending on your depth, and it simply takes longer to go that low. Iron requires no depth at all, and when mining it higher up, you're very unlikely to encounter lava, and can easily get back out if you need to. Not to mention, the distance between each iron cluster is less, regardless. If you're strip-mining everything is slower (and again, you MUST be deep to get redstone, so higher lava chance), and you're still going to encounter iron more.
3. Yeah, you can use fortune picks to mine redstone, but similarly, the proper sort of pick can make mining iron incredibly quick. Efficiency 4 diamond picks tend to do that.
There's not enough of a difficulty change between using iron blocks and using redstone blocks to warrant NOT having redstone be usable here, or to warrant having it be weaker. Iron IS still a bit more valuable, but that's part of the problem: Even if the two took equal time to get, I'd rather spend 1500 redstone than 1500 iron, considering the Beacon's weak, shortranged effects.... and even then, it's still probably not worth it (or even CLOSE to worth it).
Unfortunately, the Beacon is simply too pathetic in it's current form to be worth it, regardless of the material. The thing needs major changes not to what it takes to make it, but to what it DOES, and the range it does it at. Sadly, it seems unlikely to ever get these changes, except via mods.